In the first of a two-part investigative series in Toronto.com entitled, Deteriorating Schools reporters Cynthia Reason and Tamara Shephard explore why so many TDSB schools are in need of extensive repairs.

In this first part of the series, Etobicoke’s John English Junior Middle School is profiled because of its dubious honour of having the highest Facilities Condition Index (FCI) amongst all Etobicoke schools.

Pamela Gough, a 17-year Trustee veteran commented, “(School maintenance funding) is an issue that’s been there latent in the background since amalgamation 20 years ago, and has not been properly addressed for two decades. Meanwhile, the schools just keep getting worse and worse and worse. But because it’s so difficult an issue to address, because there are no easy fixes, and because it’s not a program issue, it tends to slide into the background.”

Steve Shaw, TDSB’s executive officer of facility services and planning, had the following to say about how inadequate provincial funding for school repairs plays out for school boards: “There are enough John English buildings out there, that we’re taking Band-Aid solutions versus building an entire new building or installing new components, because we don’t have the money.”

Fix Our Schools was quoted as saying, “Schools were so chronically and grossly underfunded for so long that every school board now is generally in a situation where the majority of their repairs are done reactively, not proactively. We know from industry research that can cost up to three times more — that is throwing money out the window. To expect boards to be efficient and effective, they really do need to be fully resourced in a stable manner.”

Heather Vickers, who recently spearheaded the relaunch of the Etobicoke Parent Network,  had this to say about disrepair such as holes in school ceilings and walls, aging boiler rooms, and lack of air circulation within old school buildings, “If repairs like those in some of our schools were happening in our own homes — whatever the problem, we’d look at them right away, because no one would want to live like that. Yet here we have students spending eight hours of their day in these same kinds of conditions? That’s not acceptable.”

Our focus will remain on ensuring all publicly funded schools in this province are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings and that the $15.9-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools is quickly eliminated. However, we are very mindful that there are many other issues in Ontario’s publicly funded education system that may interest you.

Education Minister Thompson announced many funding cuts to public education on Friday, March 15. Doug Ford’s government is scheduled to release the provincial budget on April 11, 2019. To help you stay apprised of what is going on in publicly funded education in Ontario, we wanted to share the following resource with you:

Ontario Families for Public Education (OFPE)

This is a group of parents in Ontario who got together in online discussions earlier this year after hearing that our provincial government may lift kindergarten classroom caps. They formed this group on Facebook as a place for all Ontario parents to get plain language updates of how government cuts will affect their children’s educations. Their Facebook page also provides opportunities for dialogue and organizing. Fix Our Schools encourages you to engage with OFPE and follow their work. 

On March 15, 2019 our provincial government announced several funding cuts to public education in Ontario. Therefore, we were surprised to hear from CityNews on March 20, 2019 that Doug Ford’s government plans to move forward with spending $1-billion to renew Macdonald Block, one of its government office buildings.

When 2-million Ontario students spend their days in school buildings that require $15.9-billion of repairs, we have a hard time understanding how this government is prioritizing spending $1-billion to benefit 3,600 employees.

In fact, using government-issued data on school disrepair, we found that Doug Ford’s government could actually completely repair all publicly funded schools in all six Scarborough ridings with this same $1-billion investment. The key difference? Investing in fixing all Scarborough schools would benefit over 85,000 students, teachers and education workers. 

NDP leader Andrea Horwath deplores spending $1 Billion to renovate Queen’s Park offices; she wants the gov’t to have a look at the contract to “see whether some of that billion dollars can’t be used for kids’ schools.” https://t.co/NiXeYsYnCX#onpoli #onted pic.twitter.com/6VdyezAJ0G

— Fix Our Schools (@Fix_Our_Schools) March 25, 2019

We chose Scarborough ridings because the disrepair in these schools coincidentally added up to approximately $1-billion. However, this same “greater good” argument could be applied across the Province. Gives one pause for thought, doesn’t it? How many Ontario students could benefit from an additional $1-billion investment in school infrastructure?

The Fix Our Schools campaign certainly supports investment in infrastructure. We also most certainly agree that all citizens should work in safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings. However, given Doug Ford’s government focus on balancing its books and having to “prioritize” how it spends money, we question our provincial government’s priorities if they are willing to move ahead with an investment of $1-billion that will only benefit 3,600 people when it could use that same money to benefit more than 85,000 people. Twenty-four times more people could be positively impacted by investing in Ontario’s school infrastructure than in moving ahead with investments to Mcdonald Block.

As Liberal Deputy Leader John Fraser says in the CityNews interview above, “I think if we’re going to invest money, and you need it in hospitals and schools, that’s what comes first.”

However, Minister of Government and Consumer Services Bill Walker says his staff, “deserve to be in a safe environment”. We wonder if Bill Walker would agree that Ontario’s children also deserve to be in a safe environment when they are at school?

Dear MPP Yurek,

Did you know there is $176.9-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Elgin-Middlesex-London? We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Elgin-Middlesex-London:

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you please take steps to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Dear MPP McNaughton,

Did you know there is $131.4-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex? We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex:

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you please take steps to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Dear MPP Armstrong,

In 2018 MPP Armstrong signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge to create a Standard of Good Repair for Ontario schools

Did you know there is $208-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of London-Fanshawe? We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in London-Fanshawe

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We thank you for signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge leading up to the June 2018 provincial election and we appreciate you organizing an Education Town Hall for your community. We ask that you please take steps to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

As of Fall 2017, the last time the Ministry of Education publicly updated its disrepair data, there was $15.9-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s publicly funded schools. This sad fact means that Principals and Vice Principals spend time and energy on repair issues that ought to be spent leading their schools. Principals and Vice Principals end up spending many hours each week managing repairs at their schools and fielding complaints from parents about the disrepair or construction projects underway. These are hours that could be much better spent. Principals ought to be curriculum leaders – not boiler specialists!

Unfortunately, many parents blame Principals and Trustees for disrepair in their child’s school. However, the Province is responsible for providing funding for school repairs and maintenance and, for almost twenty years, the funding provided by the Province was grossly inadequate.

Industry standards suggest that $1.4-billion/year is the absolute minimum amount required by Ontario’s school boards to have been able to conduct the necessary routine repairs and maintenance in their schools. When the Fix Our Schools campaign began in 2014, provincial funding for school repairs was ONE-TENTH this amount. Our work has helped increase provincial funding for school repairs to $1.4-billion/year today – the amount it always ought to have been. However, this $1.4-billion/year in provincial funding for school repairs is insufficient to address the $15.9-billion of disrepair that accumulated over the 20 years when provincial funding was grossly inadequate.

So, by all means, let your Principal and Trustee know about disrepair in your child’s school. However, please also contact your local MPP, Premier Ford, and Education Minister Thompson. Let them know that:

1. You know the Province is responsible for providing all education funding, including funding to maintain and repair schools.
2. You expect all publicly funded schools in Ontario to be safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning.
3. You expect the Province to develop funding solutions that will eliminate the $15.9-billion of disrepair in the coming 5-7 years.
4. You expect the Province to develop a standard of good repair for publicly funded schools in Ontario.